# Trade Direction

* **Both**: Default setting—allows the EA to open both buy and sell trades.
* **Buy Only**: Restricts the EA to open only buy (long) trades.
* **Sell Only**: Restricts the EA to open only sell (short) trades.

{% hint style="success" %}

#### When to Use

* **Both (Default)**: Ideal for strategies that capitalize on both upward and downward market movements.
* **Buy Only**: Suitable when you have a strong bullish market bias or during confirmed uptrends.
* **Sell Only**: Appropriate when anticipating bearish market conditions or during confirmed downtrends.

By carefully configuring the **Trade Direction** setting in alignment with your market analysis and risk tolerance, you can enhance the EA's performance while managing potential risks effectively.
{% endhint %}

{% hint style="warning" %}

#### **Important Notes**

* All strategies (Support/Resistance, Candlestick, etc.) will respect this setting.
* Best used when you have **market bias** or are **managing multiple charts** with different roles.
* Helps to **isolate strategies** and reduce conflicting signals if running multiple charts.
* All integrated strategies (e.g., Support/Resistance, Candlestick patterns) will adhere to this setting.
* Restricting trade direction can be beneficial when you have a clear market bias or are employing multiple EAs with different strategies.

However, limiting the EA to a single trade direction may reduce its ability to adapt to changing market conditions, potentially increasing exposure to risk.
{% endhint %}

{% hint style="danger" %}

Misconfiguring the **Trade Direction** setting can lead to significant drawdowns. For instance:

* Setting the EA to **Buy Only** in a declining market may result in consecutive losing trades.
* Conversely, choosing **Sell Only** during an uptrend can cause the EA to miss profitable opportunities and incur losses.

Such scenarios can lead to prolonged periods of underperformance and increased risk to your trading capital.
{% endhint %}

🧠 *Think of this setting as instructing the EA: “Focus only on this trade direction—I have a specific plan in mind.”*


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://smartchoise.gitbook.io/smartchoise-manual/options/strategies/trade-direction.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.
